golden hour

[wigglebugsmom]

I have been looking for the "golden hour" all summer. I think I found it. What do you think of this portrait? How is the light? does she look over processed? How is the exposure? this was my first entire shoot on Manual. Should I crop closer on her face?
Thanks,
H web by wigglebug photography, on Flickr
my dataCamera Nikon D60
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture f/1.4
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias +1/3 EV
cs3 photo shop, Coffee shop pp3 and mcp action sunny day.

[BrianD]

Nice grab w/ the D60. I like the framing you already have - I wouldn't crop it. Her face looks a little porcelain-like compared to the rest of her - so if you're going for that look consider blending it a little more into the neck/chest/arms.

Hair looks a little blown out and her eyes look a little bright - but I see a LOT of photographers making decent cash and all their portraits have similar eye enhancements. Just not my cup of tea.

[terri33inne]

Striking girl!! I love the setting too...and the sun coming in from the back/side. I like how the wheat on her right draw your eye up to her face.

I do agree that her hair is blown out... your eye immediately goes there instead of her beautiful blue eyes.

I agree that the crop is fine as it is... maybe include all of her arm and hand at the very bottom if you got it & cropped in PP.

[wigglebugsmom]

any tips on how to deal with really really blonde hair? Her whole family and my boys have this white blonde hair and I can not figure out how to get the nice bright exposure without blowing out the highlights on their hair. My youngest son has neon white hair!. Should I just burn them (the highlights) later? thanks.

[MrJones]

her skin looks over processed to me. did you apply any blur to it?

[BrianD]

couple options: Expose for the hair, and bring up the face/shadowed areas in lightroom/photoshop or similar.

You could also try out a 5in1 reflector to balance out the light - they're pretty cheap and this approach would help you "get it right in the camera" instead of enhancing it in post production.

The problem with it being too over-exposed is that the detail is just gone - so it would be tough to make it look right by darkening those areas.

One other idea would be to position the sun more directly behind your subject, which even if the hair was over-exposed, it would be a much smaller area compared to the positioning in the original photo. I don't like this approach as much since the angle you're at is great - just a little 'hot'.

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Originally Posted by wigglebugsmom

I have been looking for the "golden hour" all summer. I think I found it.

This is a great site for Golden Hour information: The Golden Hour Calculator / Sunrise and Sunset information for photographers

You plug in your location on the map and then scroll down. It shows you both the morning and evening Golden Hour for that date at your location on the planet. The little calendar block below that lets you click different dates so you can see what it will be on that date. It also shows you when the full moons are.




.

[wigglebugsmom]

A golden hour calculator!? how cool it that. I am going to check that out. Thanks!

Yes, I did process the skin. I think it looks a little over the top too. I am having a hard time finding the happy point.
Thanks for all the input .